pinnacle

Episode 100 SBC Podcast: Ant De Rosa on Sharp Betting, Pinnacle, and Market Execution

Posted on by Peter Ling

In Episode 100 of the SBC Podcast, I welcomed a special guest to mark the milestone, in the form of Antonino (Ant) De Rosa, a former Pinnacle trader and now operator of a large scale professional betting group.

This episode goes deep into the reality of sharp betting. Not theory, not models in isolation, but how markets actually move, how sportsbooks react, and why execution is often the biggest edge in the modern game.

Ant shares his unique journey from elite level Magic: The Gathering player to being recruited by Pinnacle, where he specialised in live NBA trading. He explains how his edge was never about knowing sport better than others, but about predicting behaviour, understanding where the next bet would come from, and how the market would react.

The conversation then shifts into the mechanics of running a serious betting operation today.

From scaling across multiple sports, managing hundreds of accounts, and handling real world challenges like liquidity, restrictions, and non payment. Ant is clear that having a strong model or idea is not enough, if you cannot get money down, the edge has no value.

This is a rare, honest look at the sharp end of betting in 2026, where success comes from combining insight, discipline, and the ability to execute at scale.

You can listen to Episode 100 FREE now via Apple / Spotify / YouTube and all other major podcast directories (search Smart Betting Club)

You can also support the SBC Podcast by visiting our podcast sponsor, Matchbook. You can get 150 days, commission free with them via this link.

Topics covered include

  • From Magic: The Gathering to Pinnacle trader
  • How Pinnacle identified and used sharp bettors
  • Predicting where the next bet comes from
  • Why market movement is driven by respected money
  • The difference between “cold” and “hot” bets
  • How sportsbooks actually set lines and limits
  • Building and scaling a multi sport betting operation
  • Managing hundreds of accounts and execution challenges
  • The reality of getting bets on and getting paid
  • Why liquidity defines what is worth betting
  • How edges evolve and disappear over time
  • Where opportunities still exist in modern betting

Key Quotes

On what made him successful at Pinnacle
“I was able to predict where the next bet was coming from.”

On market dynamics
“If nothing is happening and a sharp bets you, you have to move. If they bet after you move, that means something completely different.”

On sportsbooks and pricing
“Opening lines don’t matter. Within 15 minutes you’re at the right number taking bets.”

On timing of bets
“Why did they bet now and not later, that’s the question you should be asking.”

On betting reality vs theory
“If you can’t get money down on it, it’s worthless.”

On execution challenges
“I had no idea how hard it was to bet until I started doing it myself.”

On scaling and liquidity
“For us to get 10k down on a challenger match, 300 people might have to see the bet.”

On building an edge
“Start with an idea, then test it. Don’t start with a sport and hope to find one.”

About The Smart Betting CLub

The Smart Betting Club (SBC) is an independent service that has been helping serious bettors and professionals since 2006. We review, rate, and monitor tipsters and betting strategies, uncovering proven ways to profit and avoid the noise. Our mission is to help you make smarter, more sustainable profits without relying on bookmaker goodwill.

Inside SBC membership you’ll find:

  • In-depth tipster reviews and performance reports
  • Access to winning strategies that work with sharp-friendly bookmakers
  • Educational guides, data, and insights from professional bettors
  • Monthly magazines and podcasts covering everything that matters in betting today

If you’re ready to treat betting as an investment and want guidance from experts who actually win, join the Smart Betting Club today.
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​ 👉 Join SBC and start improving your betting now

 

Best Odds Dropping Software? 6.89% ROI from 5,391 Bets Reviewed

Posted on by Peter Ling

The latest issue of the Smart Betting Club Magazine has landed and this month we focus on what every serious bettor is chasing, a more advanced way to beat soft bookmakers.

In SBC 162 we break down what could be the most powerful odds dropping software we have seen to date.

This goes beyond simple alerts. By combining Pinnacle price moves with a built in EV Scanner using Betfair data, it gives you two strong signals to spot value early.

A more refined and powerful evolution of the odds dropping model, built for today’s markets and best of all as an SBC member you can save 50% for 13 months on the software in question (A saving of more than €1000!)

Access Issue 162 and the entire 19 year back catalogue with a SBC Membership​

The Best Yet?

  • Proven, real world results analysed with a 6.89% ROI from 5,391 bets across multiple sports.
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  • Custom built to suit your setup. Filter by bookmaker, odds, EV, sport and more.
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  • Not reliant on longshots or one angle, value appears across the board and multiple sports/markets.
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  • Customisable so you can tailor it to suit your approach and the bookmakers you can use!
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  • Huge SBC member discounts. 60% off month one and 50% off the next 12 months, saving over €1000

ALSO IN SBC MAGAZINE ISSUE #162

Alongside this review, this month also contains:

Bankroll Management Guide: Rowan breaks down one of the most misunderstood parts of betting using powerful free tools. Learn how to model drawdowns, understand risk, and stress test your strategy using Monte Carlo simulations so you know what to expect before variance hits.

£50K Golf Winner Payout: We speak to the SBC member who turned £10 into nearly £50,000 using our golf doubles strategy. A full breakdown of how it works and how to apply it online, in shops, or via kiosks to extract maximum value.

Football Coupons Strategy: A practical video and guide with Tom Brownlee on exploiting bookmaker shop coupons. Built on years of syndicate experience, combining small pricing edges into multiples to create long term profit.

Bet Diary: Rowan shares his latest results, portfolio adjustments, and honest insights from the ups and downs of betting for profit and the tipsters he uses.

Smart Punter Mailbag: This month covers each way golf betting using the win and place market on Betfair, how to get more from Sharp Betting, and questions around the Bet Hero service.

Smart Betting News: A look at the rise of prediction markets and what it means for bettors, plus a closer look at whether today’s betting markets are as fair as they seem.

SIGN UP FOR INSTANT ACCESS

If you’re a member, log in to your SBC account to read Issue 162 today.
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If not, join SBC now and get instant access to this magazine, our full tipster ratings, betting insight and knowledge and hundreds of previous issues and reports!

​To sign up as a paid SBC member, just click here and follow the registration link.​

Pinnacle Odds Dropper – Major New ‘Hall of Fame’ Service Review In SBC 143

Posted on by Peter Ling

The very latest SBC Magazine (Issue #143) has just been released, whereby we have a very detailed focus on Pinnacle Odds Dropper (or POD), a service that tracks sharp bookmaker moves to provide opportunities to profit from soft bookmakers (who are slower off the mark in adjusting their prices!).

Having used POD ourselves for several months and with a variety of benchmarked results to showcase, this review outlines just why we rate it of ‘Hall of Fame’ standard and how you can use it to eke a profit too.

Issue 143 of the SBC Magazine contains:

  • A full, in-depth review of POD based on our extensive experience using it.
  • Results breakdowns of the service, with real life users’ betting records analysed.
  • A video tutorial and walkthrough guide with Dylan, the service’s co-creator and owner.
  • Details on a significant SBC member discount on the cost of joining POD.
  • SBC News, with all of June’s key updates documented in one place
  • A comprehensive look at the wider ‘goings on’ in the betting world, with our ‘social media watch’ featuring some very interesting stories.

SIGN UP FOR INSTANT ACCESS TO ALL OUR CONTENT!

To gain instant access SBC Magazine #143 and all of our back catalogue of reviews and reports, you will require SBC Membership. To sign up as a paid SBC member, just click here and follow the registration link.

? A New Generation of Tipsters – Chasing Steamers In Depth Review out now!

Posted on by Josh P

A new generation of tipster services are doing something quite different.

Artificial Intelligence, the capacity to process large data sets and the facility to scrape odds and data from sites like Pinnacle make following market moves a viable betting angle for those looking for a considerable edge.

That is exactly what the latest service under the SBC review microscope – Chasing Steamers – has done.

Chasing Steamers is a tipster we have been tracking all year and after building up a considerable bank of nearly 3,000 bets in a personal betting ‘snapshot’, we have been able to test out their their service and conduct our usual analysis in a full review.

This detailed review is out now and available instantly with an SBC Membership (You can also access a 15% SBC member discount on Chasing Steamers too!)

Chasing Steamers – How It Works

Although the technology behind Chasing Steamers may be sophisticated, the underlying principle is not.

When money arrives for a selection on the world’s largest sharp bookmaker, Pinnacle, you receive a Telegram notification informing you of everything you need to know, including:

  1. The selection name
  2. How much the odds have dropped
  3. What odds you need to beat
  4. The minimum odds required for a ‘10% value bet’

 

To profit from this information, all you need to do is back the selection with any bookmaker(s) who are a lot slower to update their odds.

So in the example above, Pinnacle have priced up this player at odds of 2.38, yet he is available with the likes of bet365 at 3.5 (Although Bet365 are used for comparison purposes – the reality is you can follow this service with a huge number of bookmakers)

Hundreds of varied betting records have been documented by Christian from Chasing Steamers and to add to the ‘evidence base’, both Josh and I had a period of profitably using the service in real time (with real money!) earlier on this year.

Sign Up For The Full Story (& A Discount!)

Chasing Steamers is a real way to grow a bank and with so many bets provided each day, week and month, it offers the opportunity to do this very quickly.

As with any service, you need to consider things like the amount of time you have available, the bookmaker accounts you have access to and how big your bankroll is before subscribing.

The full lowdown and our analysis of Chasing Steamers is available now with a paid SBC Membership in an 18 page review just published

Best of all, you can also enjoy a 15% discount on ALL Chasing Steamers subscriptions as an SBC member. Saving up to as much as £82.50 on a 12 month package with the service

Detailed reports, practical advice, member only content and considerable discounts are all examples of how we will help SBC Members assess this service but the benefits of membership don’t end there.

​This page discusses everything that you can access with full SBC Membership – I would love for you to join us!

Our latest tipster review looks at a service with a 12.7% ROI at Pinnacle!

Posted on by Alex Lyons

The latest SBC tipster review is out now and focuses on a tennis tipster with a ROI of over 12% taking on one of the sharpest bookmakers around – Pinnacle.

Beating a sharp bookmaker like this is one of the hardest things to do in betting so when someone has done it for nearly 3 years and achieved such a high % ROI then it really makes you pay attention!

The tipster in question is called Aidan and he is a tipster available on the Pyckio website.

He has been seeking out value in the tennis markets since he wrote his dissertation on the efficiency of tennis betting markets at university.

Since then he has come a long way and now has a profitable public record of bets dating back to 2019.

His overall record now reads as follows…1092 bets, 139 points profit @ 12.7% ROI.

Looking at this in terms of bank growth, your bank would have grown a healthy 231% since 2019!

Impressive stuff seeing as all his bets are advised at Pinnacle.

Explore in full via the SBC Tipster Review

In this detailed review of his service we explore what is on offer including:

  • Overall performance figures analysis
  • Performance by bet type. E.g. Moneyline, Handicaps and Set betting
  • Performance by circuit – compare results from the ATP vs the WTA.
  • Betting bank advice and how to increase profits via a progressive reinvestment strategy
  • Monte carlo simulations on the risk/reward analysis of this service
  • Odds movement monitoring
  • Bookmaker requirements and suggestions

Its a deep dive into all aspects of this service, both from a theoretical and practical perspective and is exclusively available to Smart Betting Club members.

Get a 30% bonus with an SBC membership

Aidan’s service is hosted on the tipster site Pyckio and there is a special bonus offer available to Smart Betting Club members who take up a subscription with them for the first time.

Those of you keen to sign-up to any PRO Pyckio tipsters (such as Aidan) can enjoy an extra 30% in credits when making your first subscription to them.

For example, if you purchase 1000 credits, you will get a further 30% (300 credits) added to your tally.

You’ll need an SBC membership to gain exclusive access to this discount.

You’ll also need a Pinnacle account if following Aidan, so, as always, make sure this service fits your circumstances.

If interested in reading this review and getting hold of this exclusive discount, why not sign-up for an SBC membership today – and start your profitable betting journey right away!

The Spanish football tipster with an 8 year profitable record betting at Pinnacle

Posted on by Peter Ling

Betting and being profitable at Pinnacle is perhaps the holy grail (or pinnacle) of sports betting for shrewd bettors who understand the complexities of betting with normal bookmakers.

Reason being is that Pinnacle does not follow the same business model of UK bookmakers and actually encourages winners to bet on their site meaning no limitations and the opportunity to bet large stakes.

Plus, as it’s one of the sharpest bookmakers around, it means you are clearly doing something right if you are able to make money there.

This is why the latest SBC Tipster Review of the Serpa Bets service is so fascinating as its a football tipping service that has made a profit to Pinnacle quoted odds for several years.

Sergio, the expert behind Serpa Bets is also regularly beating the closing line (i.e. odds at Kick Off) at Pinnacle which, if you know a bit about betting, is the goal you should be aiming for and will secure you profits in the long run.

What does this mean for followers of Serpa Bets?

Well it means 2 things…

  1. If you have access to Pinnacle, either as a non-UK resident or through a broker, you have a ready-made, profitable strategy to use with no limitations or restrictions to face at the bookmaker.
  2. If you do not have access to Pinnacle, you can often get these odds at other more ‘UK-friendly’ bookies/exchanges meaning you too can regularly beat the closing line.

This latest review looks into exactly how the service is essentially beating the ‘sharp’ bookmakers and illustrates how it is beating the closing line.

The numbers are there to prove it as well…since 2013 the service has shown a 5.03% ROI over 1996 bets. That’s a profitable record over 8 years of betting!

Plus, until the end of 2021, Serpa Bets’ tips will be free to SBC members.

You can read this review and sign-up to follow Serpa Bets for free as a Smart Betting Club member. Subscribe now for instant access!

More On Serpa Bets

Sergio Perez of Serpa Bets is a Spanish football betting expert, providing followers with betting advice from the Primera (La Liga) and Segunda leagues.

Over the years Sergio has built up an impressive body of work, initially via the tipping platform Blogabet (2014 to 2021) and since the start of 2020 as one of the SBC’s stable of free to follow tipsters. The focus lies on the Asian Handicap markets and the Over/Under goal lines, where Serpa Bets has achieved very solid long-term ROI figures.

So solid in fact the long term figures show a Return on Investment of 5.03% over 1996 bets. That‘s profits spanning 8 years which clearly indicates a long term edge.

It is fair to say that Serpa Bets has evolved over the years. Although today the service concentrates solely on the two main Spanish leagues, it initially mixed this with bets on international games, Champions’ League and Europa League matches too.

Gradually however, Serpa Bets became more and more Spanish-centric. In 2016 the two current leagues plus the Segunda B (third tier Spanish division) became the sole focus. The latter has been subsequently dropped due to an increasing lack of liquidity in the market which meant that it was difficult for followers to get anything like a meaningful bet on without crushing the odds.

Nowadays the service simply focuses on bets in the top 2 Spanish Leagues and a mix of Asian Handicap, 1X2 and Over/Under bets.

Detailed Review Analysis

In the SBC Serpa Bets Tipster Review we have extensively analysed the service and how it has made profits spanning 8 football seasons.

There are 3 main areas of analysis that I wanted to highlight to you in this email. There is of course a lot more analysis to be read in the Tipster Review.

Firstly, amongst the analysis we discovered some edges of note including how profits were broken down by bet type.

We see here that both Asian Handicap and 1X2 bets are the most profitable with over/under bets being the least profitable (but still in profit).

There’s also significance in the performance by bookmaker table which clearly demonstrates Sergio’s edge at ‘sharp’ bookmakers Pinnacle and SBOBET.

This table shows every bet at every bookmaker since 2013. In recent years Sergio has cut all but Pinnacle/SBObet from his selections and since 2020 he has just advised bets at Pinnacle.

Odds That Are Available

Then perhaps most importantly for non-Pinnacle bettors, the below two tables show the odds tracking analysis we performed which monitored the odds movements on bets advised.

The tracking was done over 116 random bets and looks at advised prices, the odds when the bet was received, 60 minutes later, and the closing line odds, i.e. those at kick off time.

It also incorporates 2 sets of bookmakers, the likes of Pinnacle and SBO Bet and then a more “UK-friendly” set of bookies (Bet365, BetVictor and the Exchanges)

What this shows is that while you can get better odds at Pinnacle, the ROI differences are minimal, suggesting that even if unable to bet with Pinnacle, you can benefit from Serpa Bets without taking too much of a hit to your ROI, especially if able to get on within an hour of bet release.

Crucially it indicates a clear edge over closing prices too.

The odds movement analysis was a small subset of the service’s bets but if we assume the pattern remains for the overall picture then we can also assume we will be profitable taking these bets at UK-friendly bookmakers.

So if betting at Bet365, BetVictor and the Exchanges you are still beating the closing line (great) and ROI differences are only minimal when comparing the odds movements against betting at the sharps.

As an example then, you could take these bets at Betfair Exchange, still be profitable and not face restrictions and staking limits that you would get from the usual UK bookie.

Which makes Serpa Bets a tipster that you should certainly consider adding to your betting portfolio!

 

Get Started With Serpa Bets & SBC

Serpa Bets is currently free to follow for SBC members until the end of 2021.

To qualify for these free tips and to read the full in-depth Tipster Review on Serpa, check out our memberships starting from as little as £29.99 + VAT for 3 months.

Plus all our memberships our 30 day and 90 day no quibble money back guarantees.

Learn more about SBC memberships and get started immediately

Kind regards
Pete

Smart Betting Club
Owner and Founder